Authenticating customers and facilitating payment for everyday items at a store is currently a multi-step process for customers and storeowners. A customer must first select all the desired items before waiting in line to check out and authorize payment. Customers are tasked with carrying traditional payment methods (cash, credit card, debit card) and must deal with significant delay in the check-out process due to the current method of payment authorization. Merchants are tasked with authenticating customers who pay with financial accounts by requesting identification and security information such as a pin number or zip code associated with a card. Additionally, merchants must currently devote significant resources to staffing check-out lanes, as well as devoting a large physical space to the check-out process which could otherwise be used for the display and storage of products.
To expedite the payment authorization process and improve the customer experience, some merchants are experimenting with wireless check-out systems (e.g., check-out systems that use Near Field Communications “NFC,” Bluetooth Low Energy “BLE,” or Radio Frequency Identification “RFID” technologies). For example, some merchants are developing systems that allow the merchant to wirelessly identify products that a customer has placed in their shopping cart or are carrying on their person, to avoid the need to go through a check-out line. However, there is still a need to facilitate payment methods and authentication of users of these systems.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved devices, systems, and methods that expedite the process for customers to check-out and seamlessly authorize payment for items in order to reduce the dedication of significant space and manpower to the checkout process by merchants as well as streamlining the entire check-out process for the customers, and embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to this and other considerations.